Cruise Reviews

We choose this cruise since it was leaving from Baltimore, which is only 3 hours from our home and we wanted one that went over Spring break Our Steward, Rowena, was wonderful and had such a sweet personality. She was so very responsive to ... Read More

We choose this cruise since it was leaving from Baltimore, which is only 3 hours from our home and we wanted one that went over Spring break Our Steward, Rowena, was wonderful and had such a sweet personality. She was so very responsive to our every concern. We were in room 6246 and 6252 on the Carnival Pride the week of 3/31 to 4/7/19.
The ship was very clean and everyone was very helpful both times we went to Guest Services. The food was delicious and my grandson ate more than he needed to from the Pizza shop and Guys pizza. He was a little better with the ice cream but not by far. We also went to the clinic for help with sea sickness and they sold us pills for $1 for two of them and they worked wonders on my daughter. Dramamine was not helping her or her wrist patches. It was very rough.
The dining room service was exceptional. I am allergic to MSG and they gave us the menu for the following day so that I could place my order and they would ensure that it was MSG free. Our head waiter, Oliver, took great care of all of us and just had a delightful personality.
Dr. E was such a joy. He was so funny and so energenic and talented. The dance and singing group was excellent. The male lead was so convincing as the nerd that he played that I laughted all the way through it.
We enjoyed all of the ports. I was glad that it was highly suggested that we take an excursion in Freeport so we took the Garden and shopping tour. The garden was very lovely and we enjoyed it a lot. My daughter and grandkids went on the Dolphin Encounter and loved it. In Half Moon Cay, we enjoyed the barbeque and the beach and in Grand turk, we stayed on the beach and shopped in the stores. We bought smoothies in the smoothie shop and my Grandson thought it was the best he ever had and I would highly recommend them, too.
I believe it was one of the first few weeks for the crafts activities. As far as I noticed, there was only one activity. It was a travel journal notebook and you were to place stickers on it. It was obvious that this was new to everyone involved but the stickers did not stay in place on the notebook. They really needed to have glue guns or additional glue. It was obvious that noone had ever tried to put these together. A lot of people showed up for the activity and the person had to go back and get more supplies. The area that was used for the activity was just an open seating area. Additional tables to work on the craft would have been helpful.
I hope to get to cruise on the Carnival Pride again or somewhere else out of Baltimore, Bermuda or the NorthEast. I would definitely love to do this again. Read Less

I have cruised on Carnival 9 times and this was the 2nd to worst cruise. The activities were lacking, the assistant wait staff was poor for the first few days and one Alchemy Bartender was really rude and not customer friendly.
On ... Read More

I have cruised on Carnival 9 times and this was the 2nd to worst cruise. The activities were lacking, the assistant wait staff was poor for the first few days and one Alchemy Bartender was really rude and not customer friendly.
On the other hand our cabin steward Rommel was an awesome professional, our waiter Mehmet was the saving grace and the lobby bartender Katherine was the best bartender ever.
The food was not of the normal quality and they did not offer escargot on this trip. The entertainment after dinner shows were bad talent and they need to find a better way so all passengers can enjoy the Captain's cocktail party.
With all the competition among cruise lines Carnival needs to step it up. Further like Princess Carnival should consider allowing individuals to sign up for the Cheers Program. My wife does not drink and I don't think it is fair to require her to sign up just because I sign up.
Also need to figure out a way to allow passengers to get to the dining room without walking through a smoky casino
Need to step it up. Read Less

We went with two other couples and chose this crew as we are from Pittsburgh and Baltimore is only 3.5 hours drive. This was the first cruise for my husband and my first cruise on Carnival. My last cruise was about 10 years ago on a ... Read More

We went with two other couples and chose this crew as we are from Pittsburgh and Baltimore is only 3.5 hours drive. This was the first cruise for my husband and my first cruise on Carnival. My last cruise was about 10 years ago on a different cruise lin and I was interested to see what had changed since I had last cruised.
Pros:
- We loved our stateroom with a balcony. We were midship which was perfect as we didn't feel the motion of the ship as much as the front or back. We had enough room to move around and didn't feel claustrophic. Our room was very clean and room steward Yudi was helpful and friendly as he provided me ice every night due to my one foot swelling.
-The Lido Deck with the different food stations in addition to Guy's Burger Joint and the Blue Iquana Cantina were excellent.
- Daily Entertainment on the ship in the bars and 2nd floor atrium were good.
- Liked our Cruise Director, Dr. E. Thought he was funny and talented.
- Overall we thought the ship and restrooms very clean. The staff we met were friendly and helpful when we had questions.
- Enjoyed the ports especially Half Moon Cay with the lunch buffet. That was the best stop in our opinion. In Freeport we did the Dolphin Close Encounter which was great. The drivers to and from the Unexso facility were not at all friendly. They were there to haul us back and forth and nothing more. However once at the facility, everyone there were friendly. The boat captain was great and funny. The dolphin trainers were funny and extremely knowledgeable answering questions about the dolphins.
Cons: - Difficult to find seating if you got there after 9 am especially at Serenity Pool. The 3 hot tubs were always crowded and the 6 of us could never get in together.
- Grand Turk: The island is beautiful, however there is no mention about how rocky the beach is to swim and to recommend some type of water shoe if going in the water. My husband had to swim much further out to get away from the rocks.
- Dining. We thought the food lackluster and just okay. Most of the time the food was luke warm. We had the anytime dining option so each night we were seated in different areas of the restaurant with different wait staff. We were very pleased with Ariastini and Yovanni who were our waitstaff on the first and last nights of the cruise. We would have loved to be seated at their tables each night.
. The biggest issue was from Thursday to Saturday no matter what time we showed up from early (6 pm) to a little later, we always had a 30 minute wait time to get seated. In addition, one night for dessert was the Creme Brulee. It was so delicious that we requested to have it again for dinner the next night. Our waiter said he would notify the chef and tp just let the server know we had ordered the dessert. That never happened. After much miscommunication and speaking with the hostess several times, we ended up not getting until the last night of cruise.
- Entertainment was average. We really enjoyed the hypnotist show and the Music from the 80's. However the last 2 nights with the adult comedians were truly vulgar and not remotely funny and a waste of our time.
- Debarkation. What a nightmare. Minimal Communication for those who opted to have luggage checked and received zone numbers plus a bottle of rum which was in a protective carrier managed to get broke and soaked everything in that luggage.
Overall I liked the Pride since it was a smaller ship and easier to move around. It was clean and staff were friendly and helpful. My husband really enjoyed Half Moon Cay where he could get in the water and sit on the beach. Very disappointed in the evening meals. I would not take this particular cruise again since I am not a fan of the Bahamas but enjoyed visiting Grand Turk. Read Less